Chapter 10: Chapter 10: Any other Questions?

 

Chapter 10:

Karen brushed past an orc as she strode through the streets of the commoner district. 

“Watch it, midget.” 

Karen bowed her head in apology and the orc left it at that. 

“Idiot,” she muttered and kept walking past the morning crowds. 

The commoner district was overcrowded by people trying to make a simple living while avoiding the dangers that lurked past the walls in the Dusk Valley. Cost of housing was expensive enough, coupled with the nameplate annual taxing, and most commoners were barely making ends meet. 

Everyone was in a rush. The majority were headed towards one job or another, some here in the commoner district, others in the trade district. They didn’t have time to spare, most businesses didn’t condone tardiness. After all, there were plenty of others ready to take the employee’s job. Which meant they wouldn’t bother wasting time when bumping into a goblin, like Karen. She smiled as she looked at the orc’s coin purse. Pickpocketing the orc had been too easy. A little bump, a small apology, and none were the wiser of Karen’s theft. 

The purse only held a few copper coins. She clicked her tongue in annoyance. She had hoped for a silver coin, but expected as much. She dreamed of the day when she could make enough money to enter one of the academies. The business academy would be the easiest to get into, since the only requirement was tuition. She didn’t have the family connections to get into the civics academy. And like the majority of people, she hadn’t shown any talent for magic, so the mage academy would never be an option. As a goblin, her physical abilities would never be enough to allow entrance into the martial academy either. Like dwarves, goblins were short and at a disadvantage in terms of weapon range and speed compared to other species. Unlike dwarves however, goblins weren’t overly strong for their size. In other words, her prospects were slim.

Karen’s head shot up as a goblin dashed by. She had barely managed to catch a glimpse of the head of silver hair as it melted into the crowd.

“Who the hell?” She had never seen a goblin run that fast. Another goblin followed a few seconds later. 

“Leroy?”

“Karen?” Leeroy wheezed out. His face was flushed and he was drenched in sweat. “Did you see *huff* where that fucker went? Goblin, *huff* bluish skin, grey hair. Oh gods, my legs are killing me.” 

    “Um, I think he went that way. Are you okay? What’s going on? Who was that?”

He took a few moments to catch his breath before answering. “I’m not sure. He had a weird name. Twig, or something. I think he’s from a rival gang. He broke Jax’s nose and then ran.” 

“What? Is he okay!?” 

    “He’s got a broken nose, how can he be okay? I was chasing after the bastard who did it, but he’s too fast.”

    “Yeah, I noticed. It’s like he was half vampire or something.”

Leroy choked out a laugh. “Have you ever seen a vampire talk to a goblin that didn’t involve giving them some kind of orders. Those conceited bastards would never share a bed with one of us.” 

    “Yeah, I guess not…”

“I better get going. I gotta go check on Jax. I’ll look for that bastard later. Keep an eye out for him will you?” 

    “Of course.” Karen stared at the bustling crowd. She was curious about the mysterious goblin.

 

---

 

    Stryg viewed his surroundings. People still milled about the cobblestone road, though there were far fewer than in the morning. He had finally managed to get away from his attacker, after the failed initiation. 

    “Aghhh, dammit!” He ran his hands through his silver hair. He wasn’t sure where he had gone wrong. He thought he had done well in the fight. Maybe, the chief was simply angered because he had lost. It wasn’t Stryg’s fault that their chief was feeble. If that was the best they had to offer then Stryg had to conclude that city goblins were just too weak. The lack of wolves, dire bears, and other fauna had clearly made them complacent. Stryg’s mouth opened wide as he watched as a chubby goblin walked by. They had fat goblins too! What kind of shoddy training would allow such a thing! And where the hell did they have enough food to even gain that much weight? As if responding, Stryg’s stomach growled.

    He had gone a long time without food before, but never after expending so much energy repeatedly. He needed to eat something. But there was no food around. He thought of attacking one of the passersby and eating them, but he wasn’t much of a fan of eating others. They didn’t taste very good. Not to mention he didn’t have enough energy to run, let alone fight. Maybe he could break into one of the houses and grab their food. But it was still daylight, onlookers would notice. He sighed, nothing was going as planned. 

    “Wow, I can’t believe I actually found you. Today is my lucky day.”

Stryg took a step back as he eyed the cute stranger. She wore a white cotton shirt, with a blue skirt. Her black hair was tied in a ponytail. She smiled.

    “My name’s Karen. What’s yours?”

“...Stryg. Who are you?”

    “Just another commoner, trying to get by. I saw you running earlier.” She took a few steps forward.

    Stryg took two paces back.

“Hey, how did you run so fast? Why is your hair grey? Are you old? You don’t look old. Woah, your eyes are purple, I’ve never seen that before.”

    Who was this girl? Was she an enemy? If so, he was too tired to fight back. Maybe he could scare her? No, he was too skinny and short for that. 

“Not much of a talker huh?” Karen asked.

    Stryg’s stomach growled in response. 

She grinned, “Well, how about we make a deal? You answer my questions and I’ll buy you dinner. How does that sound?”

    The promise of food was tempting. But he was still cautious. “I only have to answer your questions?”

    “Yep,” she nodded. “And follow me.”

“Follow you? Why would I do that?”

    “How else are we going to get dinner. I can’t buy food here, now can I?”

“Um, no?”

    “Obviously. Come on, let’s go.” She walked away, not even bothering to check if he was following.

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    “Wait. Where are we going?”

“The trade district, of course.” She kept walking.

    Stryg reluctantly followed. “What’s that?”

She turned to look at him, her eyes narrowed, “You’re not from around here are you?”

    “...I’m scouting for my tribe.” He lied.

“So you’re a spy from one of the Valley’s raiding groups?” She raised an eyebrow.

    “No. I’m from the Blood Fang tribe.”

“Never heard of them. Are they new to Dusk Valley?”

    “No, we’re from Vulture Woods.”

“Wow, you’re super far from home, huh?”

    Stryg lowered his head, “Not really.” Though he felt disheartened as he spoke the words.

“How did your parents let you travel so far by yourself?”

    “Goblins don’t have parents.” He looked at her as if she had bumped her head. 

She returned the look. “Everyone has parents. ...It’s ok if you don’t want to talk about it, there are a lot of orphans here.”

    Stryg shrugged, “No, I mean, *sigh* of course I technically have parents. But goblins aren’t raised by their parents.”

    “What do you mean they aren’t raised by their parents? Who raises them then?”

    “Well the Mothers of course.”

“I thought you just said you weren’t raised by your parents. Just because you have two moms doesn’t mean they’re not your parents.”

    “What? No. I mean, the Mothers. Mothers of the tribe. You know, skilled women chosen from the tribe to instill the young generation to be warriors. They don’t ever have children of their own, because they are too busy training the children.”

    Karen laughed, “What the hell are you talking about.”
“Are you seriously telling me you’ve never heard of the Mothers?”

    “I don’t know anyone who has ever heard of what you're talking about.” She raised her hands. “Ok, so let me get this straight. These Mothers of yours, clothed and fed you, raised you and then taught you how to fight?”

    “They didn’t clothe us. The tanners handled making us clothes. While the cooks prepared the food. The Mothers taught us the rules and ways of the tribe, and taught us how to fight.” He recalled the bruises throughout his life, “More like beat it into us.”

    “Stryg, that’s...those, aren’t parents.”

“Like I said, goblins don’t have parents.”

    “Well, all the goblins I know had actual parents, at least at some point in time. I have a mom and dad.”

    “Then your tribe is different.”

“I’m not a part of a tribe and your tribe is clearly the weird one.”

    “All the goblin tribes I know have Mothers. Wait, you’re tribeless. An exile?” She was like him?

“What?” She giggled, “I think you’re confused. First of all, the only tribes that exist in Dusk Valley are the ones led by roaming warlords who raid outside the city and they’re not made up of only one kind of species, like a goblin tribe or whatever. No one in the city is in any kind of tribe. And the only kind of exile are the ones banished from Hollow Shade city.” 

    Stryg had a hard time understanding. “But... I thought the great cities were built by tribes making alliances with each other. Isn’t that why all these species aren’t killing each other?” He pointed his finger at people walking past. They gave him strange looks.

    “Maybe it was like that in other great cities. But here, we are just trying to get by, all species alike. People still get into fights, of course, sometimes based on their species, but more likely because of money. Life here isn’t cheap. Just because we’re safe behind the city’s walls, doesn’t mean life isn’t rough.” She shook her head as if to dispel some memory. “Except for the families of lords and ladies, those guys have it good.” 

    So, people just lived here together without fighting each other, because they just wanted to? What about food? Wouldn’t they fight over food, there surely wasn’t enough to feed everyone. Especially because there were no animals in sight.

“We’re here, the trade district.” Karen broke him out of his thoughts.

    They stood in front of a tall cobblestone bridge. A large river rushed beneath. Past the bridge lay a sprawl of stalls and shops. He noted there were far more guards stationed here. A cacophony of shouts promising the best of one product or another echoed throughout the district. Stryg felt overrun by the noise.

Karen laughed as she saw his face pale. “Come on, I know a great stall that sells amazing chicken dumplings.”

    Stryg didn’t know what chicken or dumplings were, but he was hungry enough to eat anything at this point. 

    “So, I’ve basically spent my time answering your questions. You better answer my questions, if you want me to hold up my end of the deal.”

    Stryg nodded, “Ask away.”

“How old are you?”

    “I just turned eighteen a week ago.”

“Wow, you’re only a little younger than me. I thought you were like fourteen or something.”

    “Why?” He regretted asking as the word left his lips.

“You know cuz, you don’t have any facial hair and you’re kind of, um, short for your age?” She winced in sympathy.

    There was no need though. He knew what she’d say. He was used to such remarks. He nodded. “My skin is also cyan, my hair is grey, and I have lilac color eyes too.” He laughed, bitterness creeping into his voice, “I’m just a freak of nature.” It was the whole reason why he had landed in this awful predicament in the first place. Had he been like the other goblins, perhaps he could have been in his own tent by now, bedding Bril or someone. Oh, wait, Bril was dead, the snake lady had seen to that. Definitely someone else then. He sighed, “Any other questions?”

   

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